Flatpack wooden bike ships in December

The flat-pack Sandwichbike made out of two wooden ‘plates’ starts shipping direct to consumers next week. The no-weld home-assembly bike has been on the drawing board since 2006 and was displayed at the Eurobike trade show earlier in the year. The Dutch design team behind the bike have announced it will start shipping within Europe on December 1st.

The Dutch bike with a difference costs €799 plus shipping.

The bike is delivered in a flat cardboard box and is assembled at home. (The UK’s bike-in-a-box safety regulations require a "competant mechanic" to do such home assembly but "competant mechanic" is not defined).

"The Sandwichbike is a unique and highly sophisticated product," claim makers, the Pedalfactory.

Dreamt up in 2006 by Basten Leijh of theBleijh industrial design studio in the Netherlands, the Sandwichbike is "a rock-solid piece of technology." The box contains 40+ parts.

Leijh said: "Instead of a welded frame, it is engineered as a ‘sandwich’ of two weather coated frames of layered plywood. Bonded together by ‘smart cylinders’, the frames and components become a rock-solid piece of technology that is both durable and extremely attractive."

He adds: "The fun will begin the moment the postman rings your doorbell."